Dylan- Blood on the Tracks - "Test Pressing" version - RSD 2019*

The US broker for MPO is just located in Minnesota

 

Some very poorly made recordings are constantly discussed on this forum (IMHO much worse than this, at least on my system Dylan's vocals have great presence minus some annoying reverb) when it comes to the ultimate mastering so I don't see this as much different in trying to find the best mastering or wanting it in a clean quiet pressing.

 

I went through the first 33 pages of this fascinating thread without finding the answer to my question and all of a sudden, the prospect of going through anoother 50 pages discouraged me!

Is it possible to "make" the RSD release out of the "More blood more tracks" collection? And if so how is the RSD tracklist composed? (I mean Track 1 from RSD is track 1 cd 3 from MBMT...)

thank you

EDIT: found it and it might be useful to others, so here it is

To assemble the original “Blood on the Tracks” from the eighty-seven takes on “More Blood, More Tracks,” select tracks 69 (CD 5, No. 3), 71 (CD 5, No. 5), 34 (CD 3, No. 3), 76 (CD 5, No. 10), 48 (CD 4, No. 2), 16 (CD 2, No. 5), 11 (CD 1, No. 11), 59 (CD 4, No. 13), 46 (CD 3, No. 15), and 58 (CD 4, No. 12).

credit goes to Alex Ross (New Yorker)
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/bob-dylans-masterpiece-is-still-hard-to-find

 

It's impossible to do it. Apart from mix presentation and edits, which some people might consider to be minor issues, although others won't, the organ overdub on the RSD "Idiot Wind" is a different take to the one used on MBMT. Berkowitz made it clear in an interview that a different organ overdub was consciously used for MBMT, because he preferred it. Paul Griffin recorded three organ overdubs, each using two recording channels. The original studio paperwork can be seen below.

 

I discussed this overdub in more detail in the main MBMT thread last December in post #10843. Here is a link:-

Bob Dylan – Bootleg Series Vol. 14: More Blood, More Tracks (2 Nov 2018)*

 

I find the warm mixes on the test pressing bring out a deeper layer of feeling that I don't get from the "More Blood..." mixes of the New York sessions, which succeed in putting the listener in the studio but sacrifice a little of the mystery, that 3-dimensional sense of dreaminess.

 

When pressed on the matter, didn't he admit the choice of overdub came from the "Dylan office"? Possibly they wanted to keep something exclusive for the RSD release (other than the unique mixes).

On a set with about 537 versions of Buckets Of Rain, it wouldn't have involved too much much hand-wringing to justify including 2 seperate overdub takes of Idiot Wind, unless the omission was part of the wider plan.

 

Ha! I wish Berkowitz had been pressed a bit more during that interview, but yes, kind of I suppose. In the interview he uses the phrases, "we chose..." ; "..what I'll call more tasteful organ.."; "...we tried it one way, two ways..." and then indicates that Team Bob (meaning JR and Bob, presumably) signed off on what he and Addabbo chose to do. I interpret it as him presenting it to the office pretty much as a fait accompli, according to his preference.

The section where Berkowitz offers his take on it is between approx 34:15 and 37:45 in the interview.

https://www.analogplanet.com/images/Steve Berkowitz.mp3

But I'm happy he did what he did and that Team Bob signed-off on it, even if there may have been an ulterior motive vis a vis the RSD thing, something that was predicted long before MBMT had even been officially announced.

Although I would like to have heard all the organ overdubs recorded for "Idiot Wind" (and all the steel overdubs on the various songs, and the "roadside place" line from "Tangled Up In Blue" and the harmonica break in the original place on "Simple Twist Of Fate", both present on the so-called First Acetate) at least we did get to hear one organ overdub we hadn't heard before.

There's a different steel overdub on "Meet Me In The Morning", too, isn't there? (I have a post-it note stuck to the wall here which says "MMITM alternate o/d" .)

 

Hi all. Got a U.S. copy and noticed the sound was off. Scratching sounds that I had never heard before on some of the tracks (not Dylan’s buttons). So I came here for the experts... ‘non-fill’ has now entered into my vocabulary.

Sorry I’m late to the game here...but how does one go about getting a replacement with the issue fixed? Is that happening? Does the European release have the same issues? Thanks for the guidance.

 

Not sure what the answers are and this thread has left me more confused.
I still do not know if there are USA and European pressings - are we sure of that?
My copies are all from UK retailers bought at the time and have various issues on different tracks which I think from descriptions here are non fill. My best copy only had a bit of noise on Shelter. A friend has made a high resolution file of the best versions of each song from various pressings. Nuts but unless the record is redone or gets a cd/download release we shall have to live with the record as is. I have 3 copies and that frankly is 2 too many!

 

My replacement copy has the exact same non-fill issues on the same song. There’s no guarantee that replacements fixed the problem. I think they’re just sending out remaining stock and crossing their fingers.

 

Thanks for the quick replies. Just wish the answers weren’t depressing! Not sure where to go from here...

 

Bad news for everyone I Europe, Sony are not going to do anything about this issue, received this information from the record store day people. They are in contact with only Sony in the US only, so no luck for the rest of us as it seams.

 

I received my replacement copy a few days ago. I got lucky as my replacement was clean without any non-fill or surface noise.

 

Finally, after dozens of emails I received my replacement copy today. Looks very clean compared to the RSD version. Maybe they repressed replacements. Kinda scared to play the thing but grateful to RSD for pulling through.

 

I also received my replacement copy a few days back...just took a listen and doesn't have any non-fill that I can hear. And pretty quiet overall.

Not that my original copy was terrible, but it does have a number of light to moderate non-fill on JOH, and one audible pop on IYSHSH.

 

I’m the only one so far in this thread who received a replacement that’s also full of non-fill. I won the lottery! Sigh

 

If it makes you feel better, my replacement was warped fairly noticeably (but it did play much better than my woefully off-center initial copy). And they reached out to me, based on my comments in this thread, so I am appreciative.

 

Well after weeks of sending polite emails I finally received a response. They apologized for the bad copy and are sending me a replacement. They even provided a UPS tracking number. Fingers crossed.

 

Ha. Your misfortune does make me feel better. Cheers!

I hope this gets a wide release at some point.

 

I sent an email to the French branch of RSD and they didn’t even bother to answer.

 

Keep trying. Stay polite, but resolute. I sent an email about every 1-2 weeks. Good luck.

 

What’s the address to email?

 

What email address did you use? I lost track of this thread for a while but need a replacement.

 

is this the email above